Nails
by jbn42
Summary: Patience is a virtue, but very few of us have an inexhaustible supply of it.  Sometimes it's necessary to take matters into one's own hands.


**Author's Note: **First in a series of relatively fluffy fics featuring Wash and Taylor, with bits of the others (Jim, Elisabeth, etc) thrown in for good measure. Most of these were fills for LiveJournal Friday one word prompts, this one "Nails" for Wash and Elisabeth.

Note, this is set in the context of my stories "Our Ghosts Stay With Us" and "A Phoenix By Any Other Name," etc., but not necessary to read those for this to make sense! Just be aware that in this, Wash survived being shot by Lucas and is now married to Taylor. This pre-dates my other fic, "Wait, What?" – so no child.

**Disclaimer: no profit, characters aren't mine, I'm just borrowing them for a bit.**

*THWACK*

*THWACK*

*THWACK* *THWACK* *THWACK*

"Lieutenant?"

*THWACK*

"Lieutenant?"

*THWACK*

"Wash?"

*THWACK*

"ALICIA!"

Startled by Elisabeth Shannon shouting her name, Alicia nearly drops the nail gun she's been using for the last hour. She pushes her safety glasses up into her hair. "Elisabeth? Is everything OK?"

Elisabeth gives her a bemused smile. "Alicia, what on earth are you doing?"

After looking around her at the frame of a deck that is now attached to hers and Nathaniel's housing unit, she turns back to Elisabeth and raises an eyebrow, replying, as if it's the most normal thing in the world, "I'm building a deck."

"Why?"

"Because I want a deck, Elisabeth." Alicia answers, confused. "Why else would one build a deck? My old housing unit had one, but since that unit got given away while I was dead, and then I moved in with Nathaniel anyway, I'm left in a house without a deck, and I like having a place where I can sit outside when it's nice out."

Elisabeth blinks and then shakes her head. "No, Alicia, I understand why you might want a deck, I just don't understand why you are the one out here building it."

"Ah. Well, I told Nathaniel I wanted a deck, and we got the materials pretty quickly. But all of the carpenters we have here are still tied up with the repairs to the colony because of the Phoenix Group occupation, so the materials have been sitting behind our house under a tarp for over a month. We keep running across more repairs that need to be completed, so I decided to take matters into my own hands." As Alicia explains, she walks over to the door of the house and picks up the bottle of water she placed there earlier.

"Did you at least get plans drawn up?" Elisabeth sounds concerned.

"Of course." Alicia points to the schematic on the ground near the boards that will make up the floor of the deck.

Elisabeth picks it up and studies it briefly. "So, I'm guessing that waiting for the Commander to be OTG was intentional?"

Alicia looks stubborn for a moment. "Actually, we got in a small fight about it before he left. I was bugging him about it. He was in a hurry to meet your husband for them to head out to check outpost three, and so he blew me off. I got a little irritated, and I told him I'd build it myself. He told me I couldn't, as in, I'm not able. And then he left."

"And you couldn't resist the gauntlet he'd basically just thrown down in front of you." Elisabeth's words are a statement, not a question.

"Exactly."

Elisabeth is silent for a moment. "Need help?"

Alicia grins. "Seriously, Doc?"

"Yes. It looks like fun. Especially using the nail gun."

"That's the best part." Alicia sets her own gun down and goes over to the box next to the pile of boards, pulling out a second gun and another pair of safety glasses.

She gives Elisabeth a quick lesson in using the gun, and after they develop a game plan based on the schematic, they get to work.

*THWACK*

*THWACK*

*giggle*

*THWACK*

*THWACK*

*snicker*

*THWACK*

*THWACK*

*THWACK*

Several hours later, as the sun is setting and darkness is starting to fall, Jim and Nathaniel, having dismissed Reynolds and Dunham for the night, are trudging towards their housing units. It had been a long day OTG, and they both are ready to just go home, hopeful that their respective wives might have something made for dinner.

Instead, as they approach Nathaniel and Alicia's house, which Shannon has to pass on his way to his own home, they hear a clink and then muffled coughing, followed by peals of laughter. They increase their speed, arriving at the Taylor house only to be greeted with a rather surprising sight, one that makes them stop in their tracks.

The house has what is clearly a newly constructed deck attached to it, and two chairs have been placed on the deck with a small table between them. The table holds a bottle of something from Boylan's (they've all stopped trying to guess what each liquor is supposed to actually be) and two shot glasses.

The chairs hold Alicia and Elisabeth, both visibly intoxicated and both giggling uncontrollably. They appear to be discussing whether or not they got the nails straight (they did). They also are each wearing a thigh holster, normal for Alicia, not at all normal for Elisabeth, and those holsters have nail guns inserted in them.

Shannon's voice is incredulous when he speaks. "Elisabeth?"

"Jim! We need a deck!" Elisabeth stands up quickly, probably intending to approach her husband, an intention that is not met. She faceplants into the new deck instead, causing Alicia to dissolve into another round of giggles, a truly incongruous sound coming from the usually stoic and sarcastic lieutenant.

Shannon stares at the prone form of his wife, from which soft snores now emanate. Sighing in resignation, Shannon gently removes the nail gun from her thigh holster. He places the nail gun on the edge of the new deck, and then he scoops her up. Without another word, he walks home, carrying his wife with him.

Nathaniel doesn't say a word, just drops into Elisabeth's now-vacated chair and takes a pull off of the liquor bottle. They are silent for a moment, save Alicia's muffled giggles.

"Nice deck."

"Thought you'd like it."

"I should stop telling you that you can't do things, shouldn't I?"

"Probably so." She rises from her chair, slightly wobbly but far steadier than the doctor had been. She grabs the bottle and heads inside. "Especially if those things are things I'd need to do using my new gun. It's noisy. I like it."

He shakes his head, chuckling as he follows her inside and closes the door behind them. "Yes, dear."


End file.
